Constructor: Erik Agard
Relative difficulty: Easy (2:59!)
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THEME: SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN (58A: "Let's do it!" ... or comment on the last words of 16-, 26- and 47-Across)— those "last words""sound" like a word meaning "plan," namely: "arrangement" (ARE + AINGE + MINT)
Theme answers:
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Had trouble at 1A: Leg muscle, in sports slang and figured I was in for a tougher-than-usual experience, which is typically the case when I see Erik Agard's byline, but then I got HAMMY (!), which is great slang I know exclusively from sports injury reports, and all of a sudden I shot out of that NW corner and never stopped, breaking the 3-minute barrier on a Tuesday for only the second time since I've been keeping records. Speaking of sports-related answers ... yeah, knowing something about sports was a definite asset today. I can see a lot lot lot of people going "????" at DANNY AINGE, a name I've known well for over thirty years, since he played for the World Champion Boston Celtics of 1986 (I grew up a Celtics fan in Lakers country, so this was a formative moment in my sports-fan life). And he crosses WNBA, so basketball basketball! I think DANNY AINGE is gettable from crosses, but he likely slowed you down if you needed all the crosses (or, conversely, sped you up if he was a total gimme). I was so surprised at how quickly I was moving that I was braced for a horrible speed bump or other kind of comeuppance, but it never came. Had INSTINCTIVE for INSTINCTUAL, and didn't know an IMACPRO was a thing. Also, UP AGAINST IT isn't the most common slang. But I was able to piece all those together, and the grid overall is very very smooth, and (best of all), when I finished I read the revealer, looked at the themers, literally "sound"ed it out, and genuinely laughed at the ridiculousness of the whole premise. I mean "ridiculousness" in the best possible way. This theme is loopy and goofy and I Love It. The revealer is the perfect phrase to indicate what those "last words" do. Fast fun clean solve with a perfect reveal that ends with me cornily sounding out AREAINGEMINT—yes and yes. Best puzzle of the year for me, and best Tuesday of all time (I mean, probably—Tuesdays can be dire)
Five things:
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Relative difficulty: Easy (2:59!)
Theme answers:
- "READY WHEN YOU ARE" (16A: "I'm game —— just give me the signal")
- DANNY AINGE (26A: Celtics player-turned-executive)
- BREATH MINT (47A: Something to eat after a garlicky meal)
Frybread (also spelled fry bread) is a flat dough bread, fried or deep-fried in oil, shortening, or lard. Made with simple ingredients, frybread can be eaten alone or with various toppings such as honey, jam, powdered sugar, venison, or beef. Frybread can also be made into tacos, like Navajo tacos. (wikipedia)
“Fry bread is a simple food but also a difficult symbol…connecting the present to the painful narrative of our history. It originated…when the U.S. government forced our ancestors from the homelands they farmed, foraged, and hunted, and the waters they fished. …They lost control of their food and were made to rely on government-issued commodities…. Fry bread represents perseverance and pain, ingenuity and resilience. … Yet, fry bread contributes to…a recipe for chronic illness and pain.” (Sean Sherman, "The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen")
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Five things:
- 8D: Naan-like Native American food (FRYBREAD) — this would've been much harder for me if I hadn't read the opening of Sean Sherman's "The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen," which has a section entitled "(No) Fry Bread," detailing the troubling and complicated history of that food among Native populations. It's definitely embraced as a cultural marker and emblem of survival, but it's also reviled by those who see it as a non-indigenous food that exists solely because of the straitened conditions imposed on Native Americans by forced migration. It's also a highly caloric and not-very-nutritive food that some (including Sherman) link to high rates of diabetes and other health issues among Native populations. Here are a couple of articles (onetwo) on the cultural ambivalence surrounding FRYBREAD.
- 14A: "If I Could Turn Back Time" singer, 1989 (CHER)— I approve this clue for CHER! Iconic video!
- 30D: Biles of the 2016 Olympics (SIMONE) — I was thinking just yesterday that we're going to be seeing her in grids for a long time to come, both as a clue for SIMONE but also as probably the only viable clue for BILES (pretty sure you can't pluralize "bile" omg please don't try, that was not a challenge)
- 4D: When the abolition of slavery is commemorated (MIDJUNE) — This is an interesting way to reference JUNETEENTH. Can we just put MID- before any month and call it a viable answer?! I guess we can!
- 56A: 1960s British P.M. ___ Douglas-Home (ALEC)— oh wow, there was something in this grid I didn't know—this guy. Throw him on the ALEC pile (ALEC was also Cary Grant's original middle name, which I just learned a couple of days ago while watching "North by Northwest" when I looked him up on wikipedia to see how old he was because he has a shirtless scene where he looks incredible and turns out he was in his damn 50s, that man, my god ... oh, and his name at birth was Archibald ALEC Leach, so now you know)
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